The City of San Diego just released an audit of its performance on implementing its Climate Action Plan (CAP). We read through all 60+ pages, so you don’t have to!
In a nutshell, the audit says that we need citywide coordination and that we MUST fiscally plan if we hope to achieve the climate targets outlined in the CAP. More specifically, the audit outlined two key findings:
The City must strengthen its oversight mechanisms and do a better job of keeping decision makers in the loop.
The City must develop cost estimates and a method to prioritize implementing the projects that will help us meet our CAP goals.
When we first learned that the City was planning to do this audit, we were excited to see if it would outline:
Where they are behind on their CAP goals,
How far behind they are,
What the City needs to do to get back on track with each CAP strategy.
Unfortunately, the audit lacked this specificity.
Despite this, the audit affirmed many of the concerns that community members have shared with sustainability staff, council offices, and the Mayor. In addition to the audit's important findings, we have a few key recommendations for the City:
We must implement the findings in the audit ASAP. The climate crisis is worsening and we don’t have time to delay if we hope to achieve the City’s legally-binding commitments to greenhouse gas reductions (GHGs).
We need someone high up to be a CAP champion. We need someone in a position of power—either the Mayor’s Office and/or Chief Operating Officer—to coordinate, communicate, and lead implementation across different departments.
We need a detailed plan to achieve our transportation goals. The City currently has no comprehensive roadmap on how to achieve the transportation goals outlined in the CAP. We can't achieve these goals without a plan.
As the City of San Diego begins the process of updating its Climate Action Plan, CAC and our allies will be working double time to ensure that the City implements the recommendations from this audit rapidly. We have no time to waste.
To learn more about the CAP audit, check out our full list of recommendations here.
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